Dragon Age 3 - The Next Generation

Dragon Age II distanced itself from the tactical combat of Origins, but Inquisition aims to marry the responsive action with methodical thinking. “It’s a synthesis of the two games,” Flynn said. The PC and console versions are expected to be “comparable” in terms of combat feel and presentation.
The philosophy of Dragon Age Inquisition “starts with getting back to exploration, something that Origins had some of, but we really want to do a lot more of,” Flynn told IGN. Within that world, BioWare wants you to both engage in the environment around you while still having a sense of “narrative urgency” as the world of Thedas falls to pieces around you. Flynn wouldn’t dive deep on the extent to which players will explore Thedas while bad things happen — will we leave Ferelden? Will we finally see Orlais? — BioWare wants them “to see a lot of Thedas…and go to new places.”
As the Chantry’s oppression of the mages comes to a head in the opening of Inquisition, a Fade tear splits the sky, leading dragons and other monsters into the fray, “and that kicks off the events." Following that, nations plunge into war, and “the decision is made to bring back an inquisition to find out what’s going on and stop this,” Flynn explains.
As the leader of an Inquisition, you have an uncomfortable moral choice to make. Do you side with the mages, (heretical victims) or the Chantry (oppressive religious zealots fighting for the god Andraste)?

Hm, Inquisition… I am really not sure I want to be part of ANY Inquisition.

Nobody expects the Chantry Inquisition eh?
And those yes/no decisions. They sucked in DA2. Why did I HAVE to chose between Mages or Templars? I hated that. Both sides sucked. It wasn't a cool moral dilemma, it was just: no pls chose between Satan and Lucifer… thanks. Hmpft.

I mean, Mages are crazy and super dangerous. But I dont like this Church… err Chantry. Too much bigotry.

Can I side with the Dragons pls? Why can't the Dragons win? Can I be a Dragon pls? XD

More like DA II moved away from what made the original so good, and tried to become yet another generic dark & gritty console action game with RPG elements (i.e. Mass Effect) … and flopped and was thrashed critically … so now they are 'combining the two' by backpedaling while still catering to the dumbed down console crowd.

Yeah that looked ridiculous. And please avoid choices-that-are-not-choices. The forced choice at the end of DA2 was not only a crap choice between two annoying factions, it also meant diddly squat, as the outcome was always the same.

Anyway, we'll see how it all turns out. It's still way too early to make a verdict.

Bioware has a few talented writers - in terms of playing with players or with their expectations. You can see it with SWTOR, too, in a few class stories and group missions.

But on the other hand - that's why I don't like Boware at all nowadays. They're just too good in that - if it is implemented at full scale.

And because of the few bits I found in SWTOR and DAO (plus KOTOR) - meta-thinking about how writers try to tell a story - I tend to believe nowadays that the "indoctrination theory" is actually true.

And that they'll do it again. Or in a similar manner.

That's my personal opinion.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

and please kill Hawke.it was the most uninteresting main character i played in a game.i want my grey warden back.he was mute yeah,but it was MY character and i feel far more attached to him.and please let me customize my team's equipment and clothes.

Just so people know, the writer of that article doesn't seem to have read the official DAI website. It's not the Chantry that is oppressing the mages , it's the templars as mentioned on the official website (they aren't part of the Chantry anymore as per Varric comment at the end of DA2). The funny part, I still haven't found Templar symbols in the trailer, but you can see the mage one (Cassandra's soldiers have embossed Inquisition symbol on their armor).

Also, the game isn't about the Mage/Templar war, you'll have to deal with it along a bunch of other conflicts, the Fade Tear and the "agent of chaos".

Originally Posted by KTs1980
and please kill Hawke.it was the most uninteresting main character i played in a game.i want my grey warden back.he was mute yeah,but it was MY character and i feel far more attached to him.and please let me customize my team's equipment and clothes.

You're not gonna be playing your grey warden. He's story is done. The Inquisitor will have different origins possible though, just not playable.

BioWare already showed their idea for follower's customization last year in a blog. It might have a changed a bit, they had issue implementing it in Frostbite.

The game will probably be about a cretin who has to purify the world by nailing Flemmeth. Somewhere in the middle of the gameplay that cretin will learn that Flemmeth is not the most dangerous threat and will start following another cause. During that time he or she will, as it's now a custom, develop a romance, this time with same/different gender options animals and abominations are included.

Originally Posted by KTs1980
and please kill Hawke.it was the most uninteresting main character i played in a game.i want my grey warden back.he was mute yeah,but it was MY character and i feel far more attached to him.and please let me customize my team's equipment and clothes.

When I played DA2, I changed Hawke's appearance and mostly chose the sarcastic/flippant dialogue choices. I found him to be rather entertaining.

As for the warden, it would be rather messy to bring him back. For many the warden died at the end of DA:O, and some of those folks started a new warden for the Awakening expansion. And some people never even played the expansion, or the first game for that matter. And then you have to find a way to make the warden's background relevant to his role in the new main story. I can understand why they would want to start a new main character in each game; at some point, it gets cumbersome to balance all the possible character background variations (one person's character killed the dragon and impregnated Morrigan, whereas a newly made character wasn't involved in any of that).

I think it was already announced that customization options would be back (didn't they start incorporating that in one of the DA2 DLC?)

Originally Posted by Pongo
Thanks for the info Azarhal. You're pretty well informed, are you getting this from BSN? I'd love this game to be good, but I'm finding hard to have any faith in Bioware at the minute.

BSN and elsewhere. I've been hanging out in the forums for the last few months and reading about the comics and novels (Asunder and the unreleased Masked Empire) which hints at a lots of stuff.

and I didn't hate DA2 and ME3 like some people do, so I'm pretty exited for DA3.

Originally Posted by Pongo
Do you mean like in Mass Effect, where you could tick "survivor" or something at the start and it had a slight effect on later dialogue options etc?

That's sort of how fans understand them, but I don't remember the dev using that direct comparison. Fans are also speculating they will be tied to the different "factions" in the game (Mage, Templars, etc), but that is just speculation and probably wrong.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Just so people know, the writer of that article doesn't seem to have read the official DAI website. It's not the Chantry that is oppressing the mages , it's the templars as mentioned on the official website (they aren't part of the Chantry anymore as per Varric comment at the end of DA2). The funny part, I still haven't found Templar symbols in the trailer, but you can see the mage one (Cassandra's soldiers have embossed Inquisition symbol on their armor).

Also, the game isn't about the Mage/Templar war, you'll have to deal with it along a bunch of other conflicts, the Fade Tear and the "agent of chaos".

You're not gonna be playing your grey warden. He's story is done. The Inquisitor will have different origins possible though, just not playable.

BioWare already showed their idea for follower's customization last year in a blog. It might have a changed a bit, they had issue implementing it in Frostbite.

To be honest, if I dont play on Hawke nor the Warden, I prefer not to know anything more about them at all. If the DA3 hero is new, let the previous heroes sink into legend. The last thing I want, is meeting "myself" and see tons of stuff he does or did which are not according to my decisions.

Originally Posted by dpc76
As for the warden, it would be rather messy to bring him back. For many the warden died at the end of DA:O, and some of those folks started a new warden for the Awakening expansion. And some people never even played the expansion, or the first game for that matter. And then you have to find a way to make the warden's background relevant to his role in the new main story. I can understand why they would want to start a new main character in each game; at some point, it gets cumbersome to balance all the possible character background variations (one person's character killed the dragon and impregnated Morrigan, whereas a newly made character wasn't involved in any of that).

None of that would be a problem if Bioware had stuck to their original plan. Wasn't Dragon Age supposed to be a series where you imported your character and the decisions you made from each game to the next?

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember them claiming that the choices you made in Origins would have a long-lasting impact. So much for that…

Originally Posted by JDR13
None of that would be a problem if Bioware had stuck to their original plan. Wasn't Dragon Age supposed to be a series where you imported your character and the decisions you made from each game to the next?

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember them claiming that the choices you made in Origins would have a long-lasting impact. So much for that…

Dragon Age was always supposed to be a series about the world of Thedas with different protagonists. They keep saying that since DAO was in production…